]]>By: dieberthttp://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-7
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:48:59 +0000http://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-7This quote I found many years ago but might turn the table, back on its feet!

“And I say too, that every wise man who happens to be a good man is more than human (daimonion) both in life and death, and is rightly called a demon. ” – Socrates in Plato’s Cratylus

]]>By: David Quinnhttp://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-6
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:55:13 +0000http://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-6The Wikipedia article appears to be wrong. Looking around, the consensus seems to be that a genius was a guardian spirit. For example from the Roman Myth Index (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/G/Genius.html):

Genius: A protecting spirit, analogous to the guardian angels invoked by the Church of Rome. The belief in such spirits existed both in Greece and at Rome. The Greeks called them daimones, daemons, and appear to have believed in them from the earliest times, though Homer does not mention them. The Romans seem to have received their theory concerning the genii from the Etruscans, though the name Genius itself is Latin (it is connected with gen-itus, gi-gn-omai, and equivalent in meaning to generator or father; see August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 13). The genii of the Romans are frequently confounded with the Manes, Lares, and Penates (Censorin. 3 ); and they have indeed one great feature in common, viz. that of protecting mortals; but there seems to be this essential difference, that the genii are the powers which produce life (dii genifales), and accompany man through it as his second or spiritual self, whereas the other powers do not begin to exercise their influence till life, the work of the genii, has commenced.

]]>By: dieberthttp://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-5
Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:10:29 +0000http://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=45#comment-5The entry in Wikipedia reads: “In ancient Roman religion, the genius was the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place, or thing” (sourced to “A Latin Dictionary”). What I like about this close tie between spirit and context is the obvious truth in it: the spiritual or emanation always is caused by some locality – brought forth by it. One speaks only in essences after all, trying to capture and convey experiences, that is: the quality of consciousness.

One might derive tentatively from this blog entry where genius is being defined as the clearest form of consciousness and giving birth to potential “connections and leaps can lead to major conceptual breakthroughs” that the roles of geniuses throughout history would be crucial. Did they stand at the the crossroads of many great developments and movements in human history? And was it always “good” or beyond that sort of morality? Perhaps only the shadows remain of who these people were. Certainly not the known “religious” types or public celebrities we know from myths.

Generally only bones from “saints” are left to us and even they might often not be original. The genius remains alone.